This blog is a compilation of web links and video links. Not all video links are AILV students, but the AILV student work represents over two million hits on youtube.com. Lots of other ideas, too. * It's definitely a challenge, but you can do it.

Monday, December 5, 2011

The Nevada Film Festival offers film-goers a rare opportunity to meet the filmmakers. Directors, screenwriters, cinematographers and actors eager to share their work will provide an exclusive inside look at the industry during post-screening Q&A's.

This year's festival line-up included award winning and world premiere feature films, documentaries, short films, foreign films, animations, music videos, experimental films, a screenplay competition, and an actor's showcase.

I saw “With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story” on Saturday afternoon. At 88 years old, Stan Lee's name appears on over 1 billion comics in 75 countries in 25 languages. Stan has co-created over 500 legendary pop culture characters including Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Iron Man, Thor and Hulk!The surprise was “Skew”. I did not know anything about this film before it started. It began as a low quality hand held home video… but quickly escalated into much more. The lead actors head out on an eagerly anticipated road trip and they bring along a video camera to record their journey. What starts out as a carefree adventure slowly becomes a creepy and surprisingly shocking journey. For a ultra low budget film, it pack some surprising shocks.

The last film, and where I had a chance to meet and dine with the filmmaker, was "Menschenliebe", directed by Alexander Tuschinski, a young filmmaker from Germany. It was about a nerd that gets help with seducing women… inspired by 'Don Giovanni' in Mozart's opera! Although clearly a student film, it was fully realized and surprisingly fun.

I had lunch at the Irish pub at the Rampart Casino with Alexander Tuschinski, Phil Rached (screen play award) and Kerry Kazmierowicztrimm (really, that’s on his business card) (also a screen play award winner). It was interesting to discuss how to establish yourself in the industry with these recent graduates from across the country. The happy hour beer prices were kind a cool, too.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the $186 billion U.S. consumer electronics industry. More than 2,000 companies enjoy the benefits of CEA membership.

Tuesday, January 10: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Wednesday, January 11: 9 a.m.-6 p.m.

Thursday, January 12: 9 a.m.-6 p.m.

Friday, January 13: 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

What other cool stuff is happening at the International CES?

Get ready for concerts, competitions, celebrity appearances and other events that happen at CES — even before the show officially opens its doors.

What are the requirements for attending International CES?

International CES is not open to the general public. You must be in the consumer electronics industry to be eligible to attend the show. Our attendees are made up of more than 140,000 individuals including manufacturers, retailers, content providers and creators, broadband developers, installers, engineers, corporate buyers, government leaders, financial analysts and the media.

There is still time to sign up.. you can frequently get the proper codes to get free admission – if you are in the industry – they way the world finds everything. You know, that think called Google.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival is part of the annual Vegas Valley Book Festival, which runs the first week of November in various locations across Las Vegas. This year’s event was the biggest (and longest!), special guests, more panels, free films, a bevy of the city’s most popular food trucks, tons of great merchandise from local comic shops, and all sorts of other geek-tastic awesomeness!

I went on Saturday afternoon and attended the presentation, "Married with Comics." Paul Tobin writes extensively for Marvel Comics (Spider-Girl, Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man, Spider-Man & the Secret Wars, Black Widow & the Marvel Girls, Super Heroes, Models Inc., and many more) and has worked for DC Comics, Dark Horse Comics, and several other companies. He presented with his wife, illustrator Colleen Coover. Their previous work together was Banana Sunday, which placed on YALSA’s list of best graphic novels for teens. I asked him if in the digital revolution had an effect on his career. He said as a wordsmith (writer), not really. He submitted his content to the artists and they interpreted it. He developed a 13 panel plot point and one time got back the entire sequence in six panels. He works with artists around the world. He, in some cases, has not even met some of them!

I asked him what it was like the first time he got a check from Marvel. He said it was really cool... but just that. I was surprised how calm he said he took it. I would have been jumping up and down and calling everyone! He said the check it self had a Spider-Man on it with a "thwip like sound image". He said he and his Marvel buddies called the checks (they are all contract, work for hire, freelance) "Thwips.

Monday, September 19, 2011

If you missed Photoshop World at the Mandalay Bay Resort, you really missed a lot! “Designed to help you boost your skills, Photoshop World offers three days of pulse-pounding training with classes from renowned experts in the fields of Photoshop, photography and lighting and a once-in-a-lifetime experience guaranteed to enhance your skill set and help your work soar to new heights! A Career-Enhancing Experience! Learning From The Best.”

OK, the above quote was from the website, but it was fun and interesting.. and FREE. You got free access to the sales floor on Friday if you printed out the ticket on the website. There were many interesting vendors. Great networking opportunities, too. I got offered a job opportunity and my guest found about about another.

“Whether you’re hoping to pick up new lighting techniques from the pros or want to better familiarize yourself with Photoshop and Lightroom, Photoshop World’s team of top-notch instructors give you a healthy dose of learning and inspiration. After training with NAPP’s highly regarded team of Photoshop experts and acclaimed photographers at our design and photography convention, you will see a big difference in your work almost immediately!”

Food trucks are a culinary trend. They are suddenly everywhere. Trucks move constantly, "broadcasting" their location by Twitter, parking wherever they can find enough space, and drawing as many as 800 people.

In the world of food, the food truck has a kind of celebrity standing. It is where the action is. As the LA Times said:

“The truck and its staff of merry makers have become a sort of roving party, bringing people to neighborhoods they might not normally go to, and allowing for interactions with strangers they might not otherwise talk to.”

In marketing class summer quarter, we developed Marketing plans for food trucks. I think there were some pretty good ideas presented with some great creative material.

Keri Neal said: “The product of the Wrap Shack is quite simple.Anything that can be folded into a wrap or a crepe is possible.Thus, developing a unique product item will keep my business on the consumers "top of mind" and meet their demands and needs as the market changes.” This photo of the wraps is her original photo:

Sara Philips said: “Starting out with a plan, then turning it actions can be one are the hardest things to do. Though implementation the Underdog needs to take its strategies and plans and turn them into actions to accomplish its goals, objectives, and uphold its mission statement. Above all, we need to exemplify our main concept and keep customers satisfied.” This website, to the left, is her creative work:

For Joscelyn Reyes, " The internet is a blessing or tragedy for all businesses, especially for the beginners that are struggling to find new consumers. For my bus truck I have opened a website and a twitter account. (http://electricitytruck.blogspot.com/) I have realized just how important the social media has grown to be, one post can determine your reputation and your business carrier.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Our own Michael Baker of the Art Institute of Las Vegas spoke this week at SIGGRAPH. Now in its 38th year, the SIGGRAPH conference is the premier international event on computer graphics and interactive techniques.The SIGGRAPH conference attracts the most respected technical and creative people from all over planet Earth.

Michael was on the panel titles Destruction and Dynamics for Film and Game Production.He spoke on Authoring Destruction with the Dynamica Bullet Maya Plugin.The course was focused on “rigid-body and particle simulation and collision techniques used in breaking objects and large-scale destruction. He gave a brief introduction to the basic theory, and then the course continued with examples from specific films and games. Other topics included production aspects such as authoring tools (including the open-source Bullet physics library used in both game and film production) and computational and algorithmic issues.”

Though organized by Advanced Micro Devices, other members of the presentation committee included people from DreamWorks Animation, Industrial Light & Magic and Disney Interactive Studios.

Monday, April 25, 2011

I think this commercial is wonderful for a lot of reasons. Certainly a lot of content is revealed in only 30 seconds and the little actress is terrific, but the message is really clear also. This is a great time to start a business. Yes, the economy is down, but that is the time for the entrepreneur to take advantage of the low costs of starting your own business. You can use social medis, constant online contact, gps and cell phone technology. You can use a cell phone to accept charge cards anywhere you can get a signal - I saw this in action just this past weekend at the Rock-a-billy festival.

You can prepare a business plan and get the proper government forms online. You can interact and get "Face-time" with people from around the world for free with Skype.

You can do things - today - that were not even dreamed of just a few yars ago. This commercial celebrates all that... in only 30 seconds.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

If your degree involved anything digital, and you missed NAB this year, you made a bad decision!

I went to the free workshop in Digital Rebels sponsored by Adobe and it was great! There’s a new breed of filmmakers who are changing the rules for film production and distribution. Defying the big, bloated movie budgets of the past, today’s digital rebels are making their films fast and with surprisingly low budgets. But make no mistake; the caliber and quality of these films is right up there with the best of the best. In this session, you’ll meet a few trailblazers from this new generation of filmmakers and hear first-hand how some of the film making upstarts are shaking things up. I spoke briefly with Gareth Edwards (shown on site with Monsters) after the workshop and asked him to (someday) visit the school."Its frightening how easy it is to make a film. I am worried the competition will find out." Gareth Edwards, director of the upcoming Warner Brothers Godzilla

Tyler Nelson, The Social Network (Assistant Editor to the Academy Award winning editors of the Social Network and now a member of "The Fincher Family" of filmmakers) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2379082/

Jacob Rosenberg, Bandito Brothers (Making his feature debut after 10 years of shorts and music videos)

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Welcome to Let's Roll, the home of the unique infusion of eastern and western cuisine...on four wheels no less!. We're not just another food truck.. we are THE EVENT!

Every dish is made to order using only the freshest ingredients a chassy can carry.

Click on the Menu above to see what sell: Come taste the difference at Let's Roll!

The student an BUS251 Project Management Winter 2011 did a combination culinary, hospitality design project with elaborate graphic design elements! And the food by Peter Kim was TERRIFIC! He has excellent credentials - he was a chef at both the Bellagio and the Mirage for five years. Joe Browning did the graphic design and Magdalena Corbet did the clothing and business plan.

As usual, the time constraint were VERY tight, but the results were very impressive.

Here is the brief animation that Peter Kim (an animator AND a chef ) did to promote the Let's Roll Brand. Enjoy:

Thursday, March 3, 2011

“So I know you all are wondering how I got this job.” Arny Freytag knew it was the one question everyone in the standing room-only crowd really wanted to know. To be a Playboy photographer is a dream most men have had at one time or another in their lives, mostly starting at adolescence and never really leaving. To be like Arny, the most prolific and successful shooter of all the Playboy Playmate Centerfolds — 146 girls and counting — is beyond imagination for even the most bold Walter Mitty types in the audience seated before him.

This educational experience is presented on the June 4th and June 5th in The Cohiva Ballroom at The Tropicana Hotel & Casino.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Here are the story boards for the Three Wolves Super Bowl commercial. You will find the commercial in the previous post. Note how well the students planned the shoot before they even reserved the camera!

Here is a bit more of Hsiao-Hsien Ryan Ching's work on another project. This is the Math Cruncher!

The Project Management class this quarter did one of my favorite projects!

We built Super Bowl style commercials and posted them to youtube to try and take advantage of all the hype surrounding the big game. I think they did a great job. Keep in mind that the time constraints were really tight - only two weeks to create, shoot and edit a one minute commercial - and them post it and get hits. In the past we got as much as 800,000 hits, but I think my original idea of banned Superbowl commercials has been over-saturated and maybe even stolen by actual advertisers (hey GoDaddy).

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Wedding Photographers International provided a much-needed forum for photographers who had long asked for guidance, and an association of their own.

Take a sneak peak at the latest and greatest products from WPPI’s exhibitors before the show even opens.

Introducing Launch Pad The event where vendors launch their newest products to the public. WPPI’s Launch Pad will be open to all media and all WPPI attendees. Hors d'oeuvres and Refreshments will be served.

Motorola claims the Atrix 4G is world's most powerful smartphone, (though yet to go on sale). Hardware specs are simply through the roof.

Something to get excited about at CES: Motorola's Atrix 4g ‘world’s most powerful smart-phone": dual core processor, full Firefox on AT&T

LAS VEGAS – CES – Jan. 5, 2011 —Motorola Mobility, Inc. (NYSE: MMI), and AT&T today unveiled Motorola ATRIX™ 4G, the only smartphone that allows you to carry the power of mobile computing inside your pocket. Motorola’s revolutionary webtop application changes mobile computing forever by unleashing the power of the smartphone like never before. Designed to bring unprecedented computing to your smartphone, Motorola’s webtop application runs a full Mozilla Firefox 3.6 browser and supports Adobe® Flash® Player to open up all the rich graphics, animations and video on the web. Motorola ATRIX 4G includes a dual core processor with each core running at 1 GHz, delivering up to two GHz of processing power. Put simply, Motorola ATRIX 4G is the world’s most powerful smartphone.

Originally from the 1970's, the Buttoneer is a marketing disaster legend.

Claims to be "invisible!" but the thick "clear" plastic is so fat that it shows white and is extremely obviously and tacky on any dark colored items when hemming.

As for buttons, the button stays on... so long as it isn't used. Once I tried using the actual button as, well, a button, the "secure" hold of the plastic broke through. I now have little piece of white plastic sticking out of my pants where I tried to get it to work and where it snapped.

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As an instructor with an MBA in International Marketing and Economics, I have a decade of experience in being the economist in the marketing department of an international company. I think I get a pretty accurate picture of how the students evaluate my class.
“You can not be referred to as an easy instructor, but I have to thank you for what you do for us. You hold us accountable and taunt us into bringing our A game. KK Interior Design
“There were times that I wanted to pull my hair out in frustration and times when I was on top of the world because I was excited and motivated with the project.” TS Filmmaking
“I would not have been as challenged and inspired to succeed if I had a more laid back instructor. I could tell Pinto really cared about what he was trying to teach us through these projects.” JK Graphic Design
“Slackers will never succeed in their business, and they will get a crash course in their ability to prepare through Pinto himself. …The past few months have been very difficult, but this is exactly what I needed. I benefited from this class completely and only wish I took it sooner.” AM Game Art Design